Chapter 23

Ray

The night’s warm breeze threatened to topple me off the cell phone tower. I crouched atop it, looking down at the distant ground below. There was barely enough room for me to fit both feet on the tower’s tip.

I took a deep breath, not to calm my nerves, but to take in the moment. I don’t think I’d ever had more fun in my life. I stood up, raising my arms to balance. And then I jumped.

The wind blew in my ears as I swiftly approached the deadly ground. I let out a whoop as if I were riding a rollercoaster. A split second before I pancaked myself to the desert floor, I stoked my powers, a flame of power erupting in my gut, and I halted midair, only inches off of the ground.

I levitated there for a moment, laughing with pure glee. I placed two hands on the ground, and pressed against it, shooting myself high into the air, doing multiple backflips as I went. Nothing beats flying, I thought. Period. There is nothing more thrilling, more exhilarating, or more liberating than flying. I am never driving again!

I sped through the air, redirecting my powers as Mark had instructed, performing flips, twirls, and swoops. I spotted the field where Mark was waiting for me, and I plummeted in that direction. I flew directly toward Mark and halted only feet away from him. He was hit by a burst of wind. Dirt kicked up all around us. I’d hoped to get Mark to flinch, but he didn’t even blink, as if he were accustomed to people flying this close to him.

He kept his hands in his leather jacket pockets and wore a subtle smile. “Impressive, Ray,” he said. “You’ve learned to fly after only one day of training. I can honestly say that I’ve seen only one other Starling learn to fly as fast as you have.”

I continued hovering a foot off the ground while we spoke. “I’ve always been a natural at pretty much anything athletic,” I stated.

“Yes, I can tell.” He looked at my feet, watching me stand as if on an invisible floor. He sighed, but didn’t say anything. My guess was that he was envious, wishing he could fly again.

I lowered myself to the ground. “You still haven’t told me how you lost your stone.”

He broke out of his stupor and looked me in the eyes for a moment before responding. “Thousands of years ago,” he began. “A Starling stole it from me while I was sleeping. I saw her getting away with it and I tried to stop her, but I passed out before I could. I’ve been searching for it…”

“For thousands of years?” I finished for him, incredulous. “Wow… you are freaky old! How have you not found the stone yet?”

He narrowed his eyes, looking irritated again, but not necessarily at me. “I need to be within one kilometer of the stone to feel my powers returning. I can assure you I have searched every inch of dry land on the entire planet. I have searched a fair amount of the ocean floor as well. And still nothing.”

“Whoa. That’s crazy. Do you think the thief still has it?”

“I have searched diligently for her, I assure you, but have not found a trace. I realized over the centuries that I could search so much more effectively if I had another Starling to help. Cover so much more ground at once. That’s why I waited so anxiously for the meteor shower.”

“So, you knew the comet was going to drop meteorites right here near Tucson?”

“Yes,” he replied. “You see, the comet….” He paused. “Wait. You said meteorites? Plural? More than one meteorite landed here?”

I nodded. “Yeah, I think there were actually three.”

“What?” His eyes widened. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Well, I didn’t think you—”

“—Take me there!” he demanded.

“What?”

“Take me to the impact site! Where you found your stone!” He was nearly shouting, looking overanxious.

“I don’t understand. What’s the big deal?” It was just a small hole in the ground. Why would he be so interested in that?

“Just take me! I’ll explain more when we get there.”

I was taken aback by how adamant he was. “Fine…”

The next ten minutes were too awkward to describe. Flying became weird when you had to carry another guy with you. I had to pick him up like I would a girl, and… needless to say, we flew out of the city to Red Knoll, the cactus-littered wilderness where my friends and I almost got hit by a meteorite, and where I found my red Star Stone. I flew Mark to the crater next to where we had the bon fire, happy to drop him off.

He looked at the crater, and back at me. “This is where you found the Draco stone?”

I nodded. That was a little over a week ago. It was amazing how much my life could change over the course of a single week.

“You said there were other meteorites?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I replied and pointed behind him. “One was over there. And then there was another one farther in the distance; I think it’s over there.”

“Take me to the closer one.”

I did so, reluctantly. We flew through the dark, looking carefully for a crater. It was interesting to note that Mark could see in the dark like me even without his stone. “There it is!” he shouted over the wind.

We lowered to the ground and observed the crater. It was a little smaller than the other crater, but it looked like it was hit by a similar meteorite. A blanket of black rocks covered the bottom of the hole in the ground.

Mark jumped in and dug frantically around the black rocks. He seemed anxious about something. “You think there’s another Star Stone here?” I asked him.

“There should be!” he snapped as he picked up a black rock and threw it in the distance, the same way an angry golfer would throw his defective club into a lake. “But it isn’t here! Why didn’t you tell me there were other meteorites nearby, Ray?”

“Seriously?” I said with my hands in my red hoodie’s pockets. “You’re blaming me? You never asked! Besides, I’d thought that the comet dropped off only one Star Stone.”

“No, it dropped off dozens.” Mark was still speaking through his teeth, obviously frustrated. “And there should be one in this crater. This crater is much too small to catch public attention. Do you know if anyone else knows about these craters?”

“No, just my friends that were with me that night,” I answered. “And they were all too chicken to go looking for any other meteorites. Besides them there was just…” My stomach sank. “Stoner,” I muttered.

“What?”

“Michael Stone,” I said. “And that crazy new girl, Angela, was with him that night. They were right around here when the meteor shower started.”

“Then,” Mark said as he finally stopped picking through the rocks and stood up, “one of them must have the Star Stone.”

That was a disturbing thought: Stoner having powers like me? Or even New Girl? She wanted to put up a fight with me last time we were here. Now, if she had powers like me, she’d be able to hold her own. Why did it have to be those two? Of all people! Maybe it wasn’t. Maybe a random Boy Scout troop hiked through here and found the glowing meteorite.

“Where is the third crater?” Mark asked.

I pointed to the south. “I’m not sure, but I think that’s where I heard it.”

He nodded. “Let’s go.”

I picked Mark up again and flew with him to the south. We scanned the area carefully, flying in circles several times. I wondered why Mark was so anxious to find these craters. If another Star Stone were inside, what could he do with it? He already had a stone of his own. Yes, it was lost, but it was still his.

“So, if I’m Draco,” I said while flying, “then who are you, Mark?”

“I am Polaris,” he replied as he continued to scan the desert floor for a third crater. “The North Star. The Pole God. Basically, everything revolves around me.”

I chuckled out loud, thinking he was joking, but he was dead serious.

“I’m also Ursa Minor,” he continued. “The Little Dipper, as you know it, but it literally means little bear.”

“Little bear, huh? That’s lame. Why couldn’t you be the big bear?”

“Because someone else was Ursa Major.” My questions seemed to aggravate him. His focus was no longer on the ground, but on the dark horizon, as if he were lost in a memory. I imagined that if he were thousands of years old, it would take a while for him to recall the right memories.

“There it is,” I shouted over the wind. “The third crater.”

Mark snapped out of his daydream. “Hurry!”

We landed at the edge of the crater. Mark jumped out of my grasp and into the bottom of the crater. It was only four or five feet deep, about the size of the others. At the bottom rested another pile of black meteorites.

Mark dug through the rocks as fast as he could. I was about to jump in and help, but Mark held up his hand to stop me. “No!” he snapped. “I’ve got this!”

“Whatever,” I said, placing my hands on my hips.

The longer Mark searched, the more frantic he appeared, tossing rocks out of the crater with a fury. “No,” he muttered. “No, no, no… NO!!!” He screamed at the top of his lungs, and then he fell to his knees, looking defeated.

“Man,” I said sympathetically. “That’s how I felt when the Cardinals lost the super bowl.”

He ignored me. “It’s not here. The third Star Stone was taken!”